But it's what the Michigan State side did with it that has made the most news.

On Tuesday, Spartans coach Mark Dantonio was asked about it. He had fun with it, saying his high school coach was in town for the game and his team's nickname is the Blue Devils. "I think they (the skywriters) did it for them."

The executive director of the Michigan State Alumni Association responded with a challenge.

"I'm a private pilot and have a sense of how much it costs to do some skywriting," Westerman told MLive.com. "I don't fault the Michigan fan who did it, but it felt like it would make sense to take our rivalry to a more productive level."

So he did just that.

His wife, Colleen, is a two-time ovarian cancer survivor and she received treatment from both universities. So he posted a message calling for Michigan State fans to help raise $3,000 -- the approximate cost of the skywriting - that would go to the Michigan Ovarian Cancer Alliance (based in Ann Arbor, he noted in his message) since it is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.

"Whatever we raise over the next week, I will challenge my counterpart at the UofM alumni association to inspire his members to match," he wrote.